You're reading: Tymoshenko’s husband founds firm in Czech Republic

The husband of Ukraine's jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Oleksandr Tymoshenko, who was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic, has founded a firm in that country.

"I have friends and partners here, in the Czech Republic. I’m a founder of a Czech company," Yulia Tymoshenko’s official Web site quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

He also said that his departure from Ukraine and an application asking the Czech government to provide international protection was a joint family decision.

"We discussed this decision and took it together," he said, adding that he submitted the application in November 2011, when he was on Czech territory.

Earlier, Ukrainian media reported that Oleksandr Tymoshenko has a house and own business in the Czech Republic. Twelve years ago, Oleksandr Tymoshenko purchased a house in the Lidice elite microdistrict, which was confirmed by his neighbors.

In addition, according to the register of legal entities of the Czech Republic, the firm of Oleksandr Tymoshenko, International Industrial Projects, was registered in an apartment in a building in the town of Usti nad Labem, 100 kilometers from Prague. According to the documents, the company is engaged in commercial operations, but its doors are now closed.